Almost exclusively, the only people that went the staff scientist route were those with a PhD. Everyone else either got pushed into a management role or a terminal technical position that was lesser than staff scientist.

Additionally, it felt like every year when internal research and development (IRAD) proposals went in, the only people that got funded were those with PhDs. Whether this was bias or they just had better foresight into what would be beneficial to the company, I can't really say. I thought I had some pretty good ideas that never even got a whiff.